More than 95% of processed or ultra-processed food products would be classified as unhealthy under UK government dietary guidance, according to new UCL-led research.
When the Eatwell Guide — a set of government recommendations for nutrient, food and drink intake — was used to define unhealthy food, it classified over 98% of ultra-processed products and 95% of processed products sold in the UK as unhealthy.
By contrast, the voluntary green, amber and red traffic light labelling on the front of packaging identified fewer than half (48.2%) of those foods as unhealthy.
The high fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) definition used by the Food Standards Agency Nutrient Profiling Model (FSA-NPM) to restrict the advertising and promotion of unhealthy foods identified just over half (57.6%) of the same foods as unhealthy.
As a result, the researchers suggest that inconsistencies in labelling and regulation may lead consumers to buy food and drink products which have high levels of saturated fat, salt and sugar without realising they are unhealthy.
The authors conducted a cross-sectional analysis of a representative database of 262 processed and 1,636 ultra-processed food and drink items available across the UK.
They then compared the proportions of processed and ultra-processed products identified as unhealthy by FSA-NPM, the traffic light system and new Nutrient Profiling Models aligned with the Eatwell Guide.
Professor Chris van Tulleken (UCL Infection, Immunity and Transplantation), the study’s senior author, said: “This study shows that the UK food environment is saturated with products that make it hard for consumers to eat a diet in line with UK government advice. The reason such products are so dominant may be because existing labelling and regulation systems fail to identify them as unhealthy."
Study limitations
The authors note that while their study identifies a representative selection of processed items to compare the performance of different models, it does not suggest this would be an exact list of foods which would be subject to regulation, nor the specific regulatory approaches that should be used. These approaches should be developed independently of food industry influence.
Additionally, as the analysis focuses on processed and ultra-processed products it does not test minimally processed foods. There may therefore be additional scope for future studies around this food area.
*For this study, researchers evaluated the Eatwell Guide, the Food Standards Agency Nutrient Profiling Model, the front-of-pack multiple traffic light system, and used the Nova classification of food processing to identify processed and ultra-processed food in the UK.
